


Waiting

by El Staplador (elstaplador)



Category: Christian Bible (Old Testament)
Genre: Community: 52fandoms, F/F, Gen, Introspection, Missing Scene, Multi, canonical bed trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elstaplador/pseuds/El%20Staplador
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naomi waits for Ruth to return</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting

There was no oil to spare, so she sat in the dark. All night, she sat, and she waited, and though she knew that she would hear nothing until morning, and that if the news were bad then she – _they_ \- would need to leave hastily, still she kept the watch, and saw the moon rise and then set again, and the stars brighten and then fade.

She could not sleep, she told herself, while her darling was awake, risking livelihood and reputation and perhaps life itself. It had broken her heart to send Ruth to the threshing-floor. Here, she thought, tonight, we shall know if Boaz is truly an honest man; and she trembled to think what would be if he proved not to be so.

After all, it is easy for a man to be honest in the broad light of day, and it is easier still for him to be dishonest in the dark. And Naomi was staking all that they had on the memory that her husband had been a good man, and the chance that his cousin might be a better one; and Ruth trusted her, though it was a crazy, desperate scheme.

But the barley harvest was finished, and the wheat harvest was finished, and they had no other choice. Two women cannot live all winter on what one can glean in a summer. Ruth had left everything, her home, her people, and her courage had made Naomi bold in her turn. But even now it was Ruth who was the braver. Naomi had only to wait. And so she watched, all night, because it was all that was left to her.

The sky was grey when at last she heard the footsteps, so light, so cautious, that they could have woken no sleeper. Naomi rose, her joints stiff with cold and fatigue, and unlatched the door.

She asked, 'How did things go with you, my daughter?' and laughed in delight and disbelief when Ruth poured six measures of barley at her feet.


End file.
